Chapter 1005 The fourth child who dominates the mountain
"What a pity!" Yuzhu sighed softly.
Sun Chengyun knew what Yuzhu was thinking, but he didn't dare to say it.
The Shaanxi-Gansu bandits led by Nian Gengyao only caused harm to southern Henan, northern Hunan, the entire Hubei and most of Jiangxi, and did not go to Anhui.
What Yuzhu means is obviously that the level of harm is far from reaching the expected level.
"Good brother, in my opinion, it is the best policy to give up as soon as you see fit. After all, Nian Gengyao has completed the mission you gave him." Sun Chengyun tried his best to enlighten Yuzhu.
The more the great gentry in the countryside suffer from disasters, the cheaper their land will be, and the more conducive it will be to the development of the steam industry in the future.
However, Sun Chengyun is indeed right, it is the right thing to accept things when they are good.
"If anyone is coming, open the middle door. I will greet them personally." Following the instructions, the door of Lao Tong's house suddenly opened.
When meeting with the great squires from several provinces, in order to appease their emotions, Yuzhu promised everyone in public that he would urge the Pingnan Army to wipe out the bandits as soon as possible.
After receiving a positive reply, the great squires left one after another.
After all the squires left, Yuzhu wrote a personal letter, ordering He Wenda to exterminate Nian Gengyao's bandits as soon as possible.
In fact, after successive defeats, Nian Gengyao's men now numbered less than 10,000.
The trees will fall and the hozens will scatter!
It was actually Lao Si's suggestion to flee to the southern Jiangxi region.
At first, Nian Gengyao relied on his great power and did not take Lao Si seriously.
However, with the continuous defeats and seeing that the pill was coming, Lao Si took the initiative to propose moving to the southern Jiangxi region.
Because the southern Gansu area is located at the junction of Jiangxi, Pianyuan (Hunan), Fujian and Guangdong, with many mountains and rugged mountain roads, which is very unfavorable for the transportation of artillery.
To put it bluntly, what Lao Si meant was that it would be better to just become a bandit than go to Jiangsu and die.
The area in Jiangsu is full of water nets and plains. Once you are surrounded by two rivers, you will definitely die.
If he hadn't lost the battle and suffered a huge loss in strength, Nian Gengyao would definitely not have listened to the fourth son's opinion.
Now, seeing that what Lao Si said was very reasonable, Nian Gengyao led his troops and fled into southern Jiangxi.
The soldiers who followed him to southern Gansu were basically Nian Gengyao's confidants.
Nian Gengyao was not a coward. He decisively fled into the southern Jiangxi area and successfully escaped He Wenda's pursuit.
Today's Gannan region includes Ganzhou Prefecture, Nan'an Prefecture, Ji'an Prefecture and Ningdu Prefecture.
These three prefectures and one state may seem to have a large territory, but their total population is not large.
Why?
More than 90% of it is made up of mountains, with very few plains!
Nian Gengyao fled into the mountains, and He Wenda was unable to pursue him closely. The distance between the two armies soon widened to more than five days.
After entering the mountainous area of southern Jiangxi, He Wenda knew how powerful he was and did not dare to pursue him too closely for fear of being ambushed.
After Yuzhu learned the news, he was also very aware of the power of the southern Jiangxi area, so he personally took the guard flag and took a sea boat from Dagukou south to Songjiang Prefecture, headed westward against the Yangtze River, and entered Poyang Lake from Jiujiang.
Then follow the Ganjiang River and arrive at Ganzhou Prefecture.
At the official ship wharf of Ganzhou Prefecture, He Wenda and Li Run from the Fourth Town welcomed Yuzhu ashore together.
Yuzhu looked at Li Run who looked puzzled, but was too lazy to explain.
In the suppression of bandits in southern Jiangxi, suppression should be supplemented and psychological attack should be the top priority.
Neither He Wenda nor Li Run had ever seen the power of guerrilla fighting in the mountains.
Yuzhu was worried that after they were tired, they would lose their vigilance and suffer big losses.
Then the gain outweighs the loss!
The original plan was to drive the tiger away and devour the wolf.
If so, it would be a bad deal if you were bitten by an evil tiger.
The New Army was trained by Yuzhu, so he naturally knew the advantages and disadvantages of the New Army.
In plain areas, the over 10,000 new troops with dozens of artillery pieces would definitely be invincible.
However, things are different in mountainous areas.
The tactic of queuing to kill is only suitable for plains and hilly areas, and is not suitable for mountainous operations.
With the heavy artillery, Nian Gengyao led him by the nose in circles in the big ravine. If he made a slight mistake, he would suffer a big loss.
Therefore, when Yuzhu heard that Nian Gengyao was circling the mountains in southern Jiangxi, he came in person.
After entering the headquarters of the Pingnan Army, Yuzhu sat down and took a sip of tea. He asked He Wenda with a smile: "Oucheng, Nian Gengyao hid in the mountains. Isn't it difficult to deal with it?"
He Wenda rubbed the back of his head and said with some annoyance: "To tell you the truth, Commander, Nian Gengyao seemed to suddenly have an enlightenment. Wherever the terrain was more dangerous, he would lead his men to drill there. I was afraid of being ambushed by mistake.
I didn’t dare to chase him too closely. As a result, I lost track of him within a few days.”
Yuzhu looked at his favorite general Li Run again, waiting to hear his opinion.
As early as more than ten years ago, Li Run was Yuzhu's personal soldier Geshiha, and he must be regarded as his confidant.
Li Run sat upright and thought carefully for a long time before he said: "Chief, I also think that Nian Gengyao has suddenly become smarter. Instead of taking the serious road, he insists on taking the narrow path, forcing us not to do it.
You dare to pursue me too close."
Yuzhu nodded. The generals of the new army under him had previously received tactical training in the decisive battle on the plains and were completely unfamiliar with the secrets of fighting in the mountainous areas.
In the past, when Yuzhu was the governor of Pianyuan, he had the experience of successfully suppressing bandits in western Hunan.
Therefore, Yuzhu personally came to Ganzhou this time to teach He Wenda and Li Run step by step how to fight in mountain warfare?
"Listen carefully, and remember every word I say next firmly in your heart." Yuzhu warned him carefully three times, and then said slowly, "Suppressing thieves in mountainous areas, the biggest
The most important thing is to clearly distinguish who is the thief and who is the citizen."
"When I suppressed bandits in western Hunan, the fundamental problem that led to my final victory was that all the mountain people on the edges of and in the mountains were forcibly relocated, and all the fertile farmland within thirty miles of the mountains was destroyed."
Yuzhu picked up the tea cup, took a sip, and continued to talk, "As long as there is no food supply, the big bandits will definitely starve into small bandits. After there are fewer bandits, they will not be afraid of Zhongda ambushes."
He Wenda couldn't help but his eyes lit up, and he sighed heavily: "I'm so confused, I didn't think of such a brilliant idea."
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Yuzhu smiled slightly, suppressing thieves since ancient times has never been just a military issue.
To be honest, if the common people have enough to eat, who would be willing to be a thief?
Moreover, even if there are thieves in the mountains, they are just small thieves and cannot be thousands or tens of thousands of thieves.
"You pursued them all the way from Henan. Didn't the big households along the way suffer a lot from Nian Gengyao?" Yuzhu asked He Wenda with a smile.
He Wenda grinned and said honestly: "Students have carefully calculated that at least hundreds of large squires with more than 10,000 acres of fertile land have been harmed. There are also over a thousand middle squires with more than 1,000 acres of land. As for,
There are countless small country gentlemen with hundreds of acres of land."
Li Run also smiled and added: "Chief of the mountain, as long as Nian Gengyao is full, we will chase him up and beat him up. In addition to the food we grabbed, we will also clean up the prisoners and the corpses on the ground. Everything is in vain."
What a waste of money."
For a moment, the three teachers and students laughed happily together.
The money and grain were all stolen by Nian Gengyao, so what did they have to do with the officers and soldiers?
These days, the great squires are at least starting out.
All the land owned by Juren Master does not need to be taxed.
To put it bluntly, the land income of these big squires, whether it was robbed by Nian Gengyao or not, has nothing to do with the imperial court's fiscal revenue.
On the contrary, after Nian Gengyao robbed something, the officers and soldiers could steal some of it back, which greatly increased Yuzhu's income.
Alas, if you are not a family member, you will not know that firewood and rice are expensive, and raising a new army is not easy.
One hundred thousand new troops, if raised for one year, would be a huge expense of more than 18 million taels.
If it weren't for the fact that the defeat of Lao Shi4 had directly reduced the expenditure of more than 40,000 Eight Banners soldiers, and at the same time, the Fengtai Camp also lost nearly 20,000 Eight Banners soldiers, no matter how much money Yuzhu had, it would be difficult to cover the expenditure of raising soldiers.
The cost is too huge.
If you don’t have enough money, who would be willing to work for you?
In the green camp, the generals were accustomed to living on empty pay and drinking the blood of their soldiers.
In normal times, the big-headed soldiers couldn't fight against the officers. During the war, the Qiuba soldiers were not stupid. They took the opportunity to ask for departure fees, a few months' back pay, and other benefits.
To suppress bandits in mountainous areas, conspiracy alone is obviously not enough.
What Yuzhu taught He Wenda and Li Run was all conspiracy.
The conspiracy can be broken.
The conspiracy is very powerful. You can clearly understand it but find a way to break it. This is the real mastery!
In addition to forcibly relocating the mountain people and destroying the grain fields on the mountainside, the Yuzhu Sect's third conspiracy is to block the access from the mountainous areas to the plains for food.
Fourth child, wouldn’t you like to hide in the mountains?
Okay, then I will build strong fortresses at the mountain passes where the army can attack, and block them all for you.
At that time, even if you come out of the trail and grab the food, you will not be able to take it back to the mountains quickly.
Think about it, within thirty miles of the mountains, it has become a food-free zone. How can a large group of bandits survive?
At that time, Kang Mazi forced the Han people in the coastal areas of Fujian to move thirty miles inland, which was actually a conspiracy.
However, Kang Mazi's approach was a huge mistake. The poor people who were forced to move away from the coast were all miserable.
Yuzhu's approach is different.
Nian Gengyao traveled all the way from Henan to the southern Jiangxi area. Many wealthy families along the way suffered tragic deaths.
After all the people died, the large amount of fertile land left behind became Yuzhu's private land.
Yuzhu is an old bureaucrat and is well aware of the darkness and shamelessness of local government offices.
If the ownerless fertile farmland is turned into local government farmland, most of it will be appropriated within ten years.
On the contrary, only after these high-quality fertile fields became Yuzhu's private property could they be truly distributed to farmers in need and immigrants from afar.
When Zhu Chongba founded the country, he once said proudly: I have raised more than one million troops, but I have not wasted the imperial court even one tael of silver.
However, Zhu Chongba still couldn't see as clearly as Yuzhu.
The guardhouse military household system was actually a serfdom system in disguise.
Officers will definitely take advantage of their privileges to exploit their military households unscrupulously, and then continue to turn military fields into their own private fields.
The Tang Dynasty's military system eventually collapsed, as military chiefs, large and small, usurped the land of the farmers.
In addition to tough policies, Yuzhu also issued a reward for capturing a thief and receiving five taels of silver.
This is another cruel move, which will be discussed in detail in the next chapter.